[choose a trip]

We're moving!

This whole site is being moved to a shiny new server - as are all my sites, in fact. Apologies for the bumpy road ahead, but at the end of that road things will become fast and smooth.

Once the site at the new server is ready, this message will automatically disappear!

Meanwhile, you can see how the move is progressing at the status page.

  Friday 2004-04-23 - Amsterdam, the Netherlands

New bags

The tendinitis in my right wrist hasn’t completely healed yet so packing/unpacking a backpack and hauling the duffel bag didn’t feel like a good idea: I’ll need to favor my right arm. After finding out (from calling Bever, where I bought it many years ago) what the volume of my backpack was, I went shopping for wheeled luggage.

First stop (yesterday) was at the luggage store in the Kinkerstraat in Amsterdam. They didn’t have a small backpack with wheels (they could order one but then they’d need a down payment — and I’m not going to pay for something like that when I haven’t seen it first!). They did have big bags on wheels: a cheap one (don’t risk that on a 2-month trip) and a Samsonite which looked OK. Not much choice though.

Then I went to a store on the Nieuwendijk (also in Amsterdam). Lots of choices, and very nice and knowledgeable service. I got a nice large Samsonite bag, and a Delsey backpack small enough to be acceptable as carry-on luggage on the planes but large enough to pack all my films and whatever else I must have with me; even small enough to (just) fit inside the large bag to get it all home.

Happy with my purchases, I took advantage of the nice weather and walked home. The bag is easy to walk with, and stable even on uneven pavement.

posted: Sunday 2004-04-25 23:15 UTC health, luggage, preparations